In October of 1951, Kosti Ruohomaa took photographs at the West Oxford Agricultural Society, better known as the Fryeburg Fair. Two photos—an ox-pulling team and an elder eating ice cream—appeared in Life Magazine’s October 22 issue, pp 30-31, in the article “It’s a Bumper Year for Fairs”.

The spectacle has been the largest agricultural fair in Maine for over a century, and has been held annually since 1851. Events include livestock shows, horse and ox team pulling, calf and pig scrambles, and live performances. There are also vendors, carnival games, and rides.  As of 2019, the fair was drawing 150,000 attendees in a given year. The 2020 fair was not held, on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. That was only the third hiatus the fair had taken in its 170-year history, the other two being on account of the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, and WWII, respectively.